"U.S. fiscal failure warrants a de-Americanized world," screamed the headline of an editorial in Xinhua, the official press agency of the Chinese government (10/13/13).
The editorial voiced the Chinese imperialists' anger over the US failure to pass a federal budget and raise the debt ceiling, which puts "many nations' tremendous dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonized."
"Such alarming days," they declared, "have to be terminated." They call for a new de-Americanized world order. One of its key corner stones, the editorial suggests, should be the introduction of a "new international reserve currency … created to replace the dominant U.S. dollar."
These are fighting words. The Chinese imperialists are throwing down the gauntlet to US imperialism. This will inevitably lead to World War III because the world's dominant currency has never been replaced peacefully.
It took WWI and WWII to finally put the British pound to rest as the world's primary currency and British imperialism as the world's dominant power. US imperialism and its dollar occupied both positions after 1945. Dislodging them won't be peaceful. No dominant imperialist power abandons the world's stage peacefully.

US imperialists are preparing to meet the Chinese challenge
"Unquestionably, China is the economic engine of Asia, displacing both Japan and the United States. According to US government projections, China is expected to be the world's largest economy by 2019 in terms of purchasing power parity." - Samir Tata, a US War College analyst.
He laments the fact that the US task of "maintaining its primacy as a global power" won't be easy because of the economic restrictions imposed by a $16 trillion federal government debt, and the worst economic crisis since 1929. Nevertheless, he states unequivocally that, "The overarching national security objective of the United States must be crystal clear: to counterbalance and contain a rising China determined to be the dominant economic, political, and military power in Asia." The Xinhua editorial makes it crystal clear that Chinese imperialists' aspirations encompass the whole world.

Pivot to "Asia-Pacific": US imperialists' main strategy to fight China
The US "pivot" is a threepronged strategy: diplomatic, economic and military. Obama's absence from two resent Asian summits did nothing to advance this strategy. China's President Xi Jinping, however, used both occasions to expand China's economic and diplomatic clout in the region. US main weakness, however, was not Obama's absence or his government's shutdown but US imperialism's economic woes. In any case, Obama, as president of the world's biggest debtor nation, had very little to offer. Economic and diplomatic policies need hefty economic backing. This leaves US imperialism's strategy with only one prong: the military one.

US war strategy: Deny China's energy in times of conflict
"China's economic and military security is inextricably intertwined with its energy security. From a strategic perspective," writes Tata, "the 'Achilles' heel' of China is its overwhelming dependence on Persian Gulf energy." This dependence has increased since Tuesday when China overtook the US as the biggest oil importer: 6.3 million barrels a day, projected to increase to 9.2 million barrels by 2020.
"For the US to counterbalance China successfully," he continues, "it must be able to threaten China's energy security." Presently, the US Navy controls the five critical choke points—Hormuz, Bab el Mandab, Malacca, Sunda and Lambok (see map)—and the sea lanes linking them. The bulk of China's oil and gas imports from the Middle East and Africa must travel through them. This is China's jugular vein.
To be completely successful, however, "the United States also must be able to prevent China from obtaining Persian Gulf oil and gas via alternative land-based pipelines. … therefore, the United States must be able to convince Iran, through persuasion or coercion, to suspend energy exports to China," says analyst Tata.
Indonesia, India and Iran are crucial for US imperialism's strategy to work. Indonesia and Iran must at least be neutralized. Forging a military coalition with India, Australia, Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines to fight China might be a US pipe dream.

Endless Capitalist-Imperialist wars or communist revolution
What US imperialism can achieve is subject to speculation. The approaching world war, however, is no speculation. China's rise as the biggest importer of Persian Gulf oil will accelerate the demise of the US Petrodollar and the rise of the Petro-Yuan. The drive for World War III will then be on steroids.
The deepening capitalist crisis has the world's masses in motion. Millions are questioning capitalism and are open to our communist ideas. Imperialist war will further intensify our class' misery and oppression, especially for industrial workers and soldiers. The potential to mobilize the masses for communism will be immeasurable. We call on ICWP members and Red Flag readers to struggle to win our youth to go into the army and factories to help organize soldiers and workers for revolution. This, spreading Red Flag, especially among these key sectors, and building ICWP massively must be our response to the bosses' war plans: to bury them and their genocidal racist system forever. Join us!